This Day in History

• In 1920, a fire destroyed the plant of the Daily Alaska Citizen at Fairbanks.

• In 1979, a woman won Fort Richardson's "Soldier of the Year Award."

In the nation

• In 1883, James Ritty and John Birch received a U.S. patent for the first cash register.

• In 1933, the first episode of the "Lone Ranger" radio program was broadcast on station WXYZ in Detroit.

• In 1958, "Sunrise at Campobello," a play by Dore Schary about Franklin D. Roosevelt's struggle against polio, opened on Broadway with Ralph Bellamy as FDR.

• In 1962, two members of "The Flying Wallendas" high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit.

• In 2003, Richard Reid, the British citizen and al-Qaida follower who had tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in Boston.

In the world

• In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

• In 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi was shot and killed by a Hindu extremist.

• In 1968, the Tet Offensive began during the Vietnam War as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals; although the Communists were beaten back, the offensive was seen as a major setback for the U.S. and its allies.

• In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as "Bloody Sunday."

• In 2003, President Bush put allies on notice that diplomacy would give way to a decision on war with Iraq in "weeks, not months."

• In 2005, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Robert McCartney, 33, was killed after intervening in a pub fight between Irish Republican Army members and a friend of his.